Puzzle Description:

Mary Poppins. The original title was "Practically Perfect in Every Way." That is a line from the movie, which was released when I was still in high school! (Most of you probably weren't even born yet.)

#1: Teresa K (fasstar) on Oct 3, 2009 [SPOILER]

Here's a clip from the movie, with the song "Let's Go Fly a Kite" and the end where she flies up and away. "Good bye, Mary Poppins. Don't stay away too long."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g89NxTTycxc

That's one of the scariest movies ever made.

Of course I'm old enough to remember! My parents took us to the big city (Columbus) to see the movie in the theater. It was awesome, and strange! Afterwards I almost wished we could have a nanny... Great puzzle, Teresa!

I actually thought of this same idea for this week's theme; but I'm not good at drawing people, and I thought "That's a Teresa puzzle - she would do this so well!" And so you did!

Hi Teresa,
Another excellent black & white painting! I'm more than old enough to remember when the movie was made. It's one of my favorites. Keep creating ! I love solving your puzzles.

The title gave it away, but still a good puzzle.

Thanks for your comments, Tonia and Jewel.

Thanks, Adam. I tried to find a good quote from the movie, but they all would have given it away, so I chose this one. Some days I can think of clever titles, and other days, oh well. :-) If you or someone else comes up with a better title, I would love to use it. If I like it. :-D

Some of these probably wouldn't work either, but I thought I would throw a few out there...

Rrrrrrrrum punch!

Step in time

Hissing and fizzing like snakes

But I wanted to feed the birds...

Your sweet gentility is crystal clear

Don't nod and dream

Thanks for your entry! I'm now singing "Chim chiminey" non stop.
The play is being on Broadway for about 5 years, so I'm sure many more people know it now.

My title: Cherry Poppin ?

or the classic: supercalifragilisticexpedilucious!

Loved the puzzle Thanks so much!

I'd opt for " Compliments of an East Wind..." I love Mary Poppins! Of course I read all about her way before there was ever a movie! lol

Glad you liked it, Geekess.

Thanks, JoDeen. I knew you would come up with a good one.

I'm a young'un, but I definitely have fond memories of Mary Poppins :) Beautiful puzzle!

Thanks, BluePaint.

My mom used to sing "Let's go fly a kite" with me in a high falsetto. It was our inside joke.

One of my all time favorites! I have memories of singing this as loud as we could on the swings in our back yard. I am sure there were neighbors closing their windows!

The film was such a travesty of the original books that the author refused Disney to make a sequel.
I believe the books are about to undergo faithful adaptations with the author's estate's blessing.

The film was such a travesty of the original books that the author refused Disney to make a sequel.
I believe the books are about to undergo faithful adaptations with the author's estate's blessing.

The film was such a travesty of the original books that the author refused Disney to make a sequel.
I believe the books are about to undergo faithful adaptations with the author's estate's blessing.

When I did a puzzle on a similar theme (#419), it was called "Jolly Holiday" which probably is even more of a give away. I also remember when the movie was new, and it delighted my five year old heart. If it was a "travesty" it was a danged fine travesty.

Reading up, I see that Travers had script approval over the Disney film, but still wasn't happy with the result, notably with the addition of music, the softening of Mary's character, and the animated elements. Quoth Wikipedia: "At the film's star-studded premiere, she reportedly approached Disney and told him that the animated sequence had to go. Disney responded by saying 'Pamela, the ship has sailed.' and walked away. Travers would never again agree to another Poppins/Disney adaptation, though Disney made several attempts to persuade her to change her mind." She got really, really pissed at Disney.

Twenty-five years later, when she was approached about granting rights for a stage musical, she agreed only on the condition that no Americans (or anyone else not British) be allowed to participate, and she enshrined that restriction in her will. I assume the 1983 Russian TV series avoided this restriction by ignoring it.

I found nothing about a new movie in production. I think you'd have to be crazy. Make Mary meaner, cut out the songs, cut out the animation, and you'd have a movie that might have made P.L.Travers happy, but would make everyone else say they preferred the Disney version. About the only chance you'd have is to inject a lot of cool computer animation into it to substitute for the hand-drawn animation, and I think we may be past the point where that alone can carry a movie.

While googling, I came across this recut trailer for mary poppins: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T5_0AGdFic

Apparently, there is a whole subculture of making misleading trailers for movies, "Mary Poppins" as a horror movie, "Silence of Lambs" as a love story. It's an art form that occasionally seems to creep into the official movie trailers.

Thanks for the research, Jan. I imagine the adaptations were painful to Travers' ego, but Disney was a genius. The horror movie trailer is a scream. (groan) Now I'm off to solve your version. :-)

Travers was a follower of Gurdjieff and used his philosophy in her writings. I imagine this flew over the Disney studio's heads and was lost to the film.

This was deceptively difficult to solve at the beginning, fairly easy through the middle parts and tricky at the end but a good result. Initial I thought it was a derigible with it's skyhook lowered, coming in to dock at the Empire State Building.

I'm old enough to have seen the film in it's original release in the theater (same age as Jan and in the same generation as Teresa as well as several others).

Fun interpretation of the theme! ... except I now have "Let's go fly a kite" as an earworm. (Phbbt.) Think I'll have to go put on some Mozart while I finally eat breakfast.

:-)

Martin, the next puzzle is for you, with some music to replace this one in your head. :-)

I love that movie!

Josie was probably 23-24 months when we bought it on VHS. Although she was so little, she loved it so much she could watch the entire movie, even thoough it's over 2 hours long. In fact, she wanted to watch it every single day.

wonderful puzzle! very fun to solve (but what else could i expect :-) )

Thanks, Linda.

i completely agree with 28

One of my favorite movies! At first, while I was working on the bottom, I thought it was going to be the Wicked Witch of the East. Thank you for a great puzzle!

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